WASHINGTON (ABP) — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's support among evangelicals failed to garner a win for him in the Jan. 19 GOP primary in South Carolina.
The Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor lost that race — the primary season's first Southern contest — to Arizona Sen. John McCain. McCain won 33 percent of the vote to Huckabee's 30 percent. Running a distant third was former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who dropped out of the race Jan. 22, at 16 percent.
Huckabee supporters had hoped that the Palmetto State's large population of conservative Christians would push Huckabee to his second major win. According to the exit polls used by the major television news networks, the former pastor won a plurality of voters who described themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians — 43 percent to McCain's 27 percent.
But that margin did not come close to equaling the two-thirds of evangelicals who propelled Huckabee to victory in the earlier Iowa caucuses. About 60 percent of GOP voters in each contest identified as born-again or evangelical in each state, the highest proportion of any contest so far.
Meanwhile, McCain, Thompson and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney all bested Huckabee among non-evangelical Republicans in South Carolina. Romney had won the GOP primary in Michigan, the state where he was born, earlier in the week. The Mormon businessman fared better there among evangelicals than did Huckabee.
Romney bested Huckabee among evangelicals in the Nevada GOP caucus, which also took place Jan. 19. He was expected to win handily in that state, which is adjacent to Utah and home to a large population of Latter-day Saints. But Romney far outstripped Huckabee even among Nevada evangelicals, with 39 percent to the Arkansan's 22 percent. Self-described evangelicals were only about a fourth of the state's GOP voters.
In South Carolina, Huckabee beat McCain decisively in one religious category: voters who told exit pollsters they attend church more than once a week. He got 52 percent of those voters to McCain's 23 percent. They made up 31 percent of South Carolina Republicans.
But McCain beat Huckabee handily among South Carolina Catholics, who made up 13 percent of the state's GOP voters. Forty-five percent of them chose the Arizona senator, while only 11 percent picked the Arkansan.
In the Nevada caucuses, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton edged her closest rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, 51 percent to 45 percent.
Despite protests from progressive Christian groups, the media-consortium pollsters did not ask Democratic caucus-goers if they would describe themselves as evangelical or born again. Democrats also were not asked how often they attended church.
They were asked basic questions about religious affiliation, though. Clinton bested Obama in every religious category besides people who described themselves as other than Protestant or Catholic, those who said their religious affiliation was something other than Christianity, Islam, Judaism or Mormonism, and those who had no religious affiliation.
The Democrats will hold the South Carolina primary Jan. 26. In a Jan. 21 CNN debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Obama said his party had been wrong to write off evangelical voters in earlier elections.
“I think … there have been times where our Democratic Party did not reach out as aggressively as we could to evangelicals, for example, because the assumption was, well, they don't agree with us on choice, or they don't agree with us on gay rights, and so we just shouldn't show up,” he said. “And that means that people have a very right-wing perspective in terms of what faith means and of defining our faith.
“And as somebody who believes deeply in the precepts of Jesus Christ, particularly treating the least of these in a way that he would, that it is important for us to not concede that ground, because I think we can go after those folks and get them,” he concluded.
Obama's campaign has reportedly sent mailers to potential voters emphasizing the Congregationalist senator's Christian credentials. Over the past year, unknown sources have repeatedly spread an unsubstantiated rumor that Obama is Muslim.
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Read more:
Obama again refutes Muslim rumors; Jewish leaders denounce e-mails (1/17/2008)
Evangelical voters in Michigan prefer Romney over Huckabee (1/17/2008)
New Hampshire exit-poll statistics muddy picture of religious voters (1/09/2008)
Huckabee, Obama victories in Iowa spotlight religion in 2008 campaign (1/14/2008)